Top seed Carlsen Magnus of Norway and No. 2 Vladimir Kramnik of Russia are leading the group of 1.5-pointers. Magnus thumped GM Chitambaram Aravindh of India while Kramnik split the point with GM Kacper Piorun of Poland.

The 22-year-old So will be gunning for his third straight win when he battles Howell in the third round of the tournament which offers $25,000 to the champion and $15,000 to the runner-up.

The other interesting third-round pairings are Giri-Wojtaszek, Sethuraman-Li, Yu-Swiercz, Magnus-Yuffa, and Kramnik-GM Daniele Vocaturo of Italy.